Five-time Tony Award-winning actress Audra McDonald returns to Broadway as Billie Holiday in Lanie Robertson's play with music, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, which officially opens April 13 at the Circle in the Square.

PHOTO RECAP: Audra McDonald Is Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

PHOTO RECAP: Audra McDonald Is Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

Audra McDonald returned to Broadway in 2014 as Billie Holiday in Lanie Robertson's play with music, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. HBO announced Dec. 17 that it will film Audra in her sixth Tony Award-winning performance for future broadcast.

13 PHOTOS

Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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Audra McDonald
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The 1959-set play, which centers on one of Holiday's final public appearances, takes place in Philadelphia four months before the singer's death. The 90-minute show includes such songs as "God Bless the Child," "Strange Fruit," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "When a Woman Loves a Man," "Foolin' Myself," "Don't Explain," "Somebody's On My Mind," "Taint Nobody's Bizness," "Baby Doll" and more. A cast album is planned.

According to producers, "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill recounts Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous. 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia, Holiday puts on a show that unbeknownst to the audience, will leave them witnesses to one of the last performances of her lifetime. Through her poignant voice and moving songs, one of the greatest jazz singers of all-time shares her loves and her losses." Lady Day has scenic design by James Noone, costume design by ESosa, lighting design by Robert Wierzel, sound design by Steven Canyon Kennedy, wig design and special makeup design by J. Jared Janis and Rob Green. Orchestrations and musical arrangements are by Tim Weil.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA, in the spring of 1986 prior to an Off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre. Lonette McKee starred in the original Off-Broadway staging of the musical that has become a popular title for regional theatres.

McDonald earned Tony Awards for her work in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun. Her work on stage also includes Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with Patti LuPone, as well as Tony-nominated performances in 110 in the Shade and Marie Christine. On screen she has appeared in the television adaptations of "A Raisin in the Sun," "Wit" and "Annie." She is known to television audiences for "Private Practice" and "Grey's Anatomy."